Radio tower and leg for the same



Oct. 8, 1957 v. w. CLARK 2,808,912

RADIO TOWER AND LEG FOR THE SAME Filed Feb. 1, 1954 V/RG/L W. CLARKINVENTOR.

United States Patent 2,808,912 RADIO rowan AND LEG FOR THE SAME VirgilW. Clark, Houston, Tex., assignor, by mesne assignments, to TheYoungstown Sheet and Tube Company Application February 1, 1954, SerialNo. 407,220

1 Claim. (Cl. 189-13) My invention relates to fabricated steel towersand relates in particular to towers of the type employed in radiobroadcasting.

It is an object of the invention to provide a tower which is economicalbecause of its greater strength per pound of steel employed and becauseof its greater tolerances.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a tower which may beextended to extreme heights as compared to towers now in use withoutexpenditure of excessive quantities of material.

A further object of the invention is to provide a trifacial toweremploying a novel arrangement of legs and reinforcing which enables theart to obtain heights in excess to those obtainable in towerconstructions employing structural angles as leg members.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tower having legswhich may be readily formed from structural steel members knowngenerally as H-beams, by bending the webs of such beams transversely sothat the plates or flanges of these beams are swung from planes whichare substantially parallel to each other into planes which are disposedat an angle to each other and intersect along a line which issubstantially parallel to the edges of the flanges.

Further objects and advantages of the invention may be brought out inthe following part of the specification wherein I have described thedetails of a preferred form of the invention for the purpose ofcompletely disclosing the invention so that it may be readily practicedby the art, without intention to limit the scope of the invention whichis set forth in the appended claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawing which is for illustrative purposesonly:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view, to reduced scale, of a preferred form ofthe tower;

Fig. 2 is a section, to enlarged scale, taken as indicated on the line22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken as indicated on the line33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of one of the leg members.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the tower comprises legs 11 laced by crossbracing comprising girts 12 and diagonals 13. The tower 10 is supportedby piers which receive the lower ends of the legs 11, and upper portionsof the tower 10 are steadied by guy wires 5.

Each of the legs 11 comprises a pair of flanges or plates 15 which areextended vertically, or longitudinally of the legs. These plates 15 aredisposed in planes which correspond to the faces of the trifacial tower.In Fig. 2, I show planes a-a and b-b which are defined by faces F and F2of the tower. These planes lie at an angle to each other and cross alonga vertical line L which identifies one corner of the tower and which issubstantially parallel to the edges of the plates 15. The plates 15 ofthe leg 11, shown in the upper part of Fig. 2, are arranged so thattheir outer faces lie in or correspond to the crossing planes aa andb-b. Although the outer faces of the plate 15 are not parallel, theedges thereof are parallel. The plates 15 are connected by a web 16comprising adjacent longitudinal portions 17 which merge with the innerfaces of the plates 15 along lines which are arranged longitudinally ofthe plates 15 and which are spaced from the edges of the plates 15. Inthe construction shown the lateral edges of the web 16 engage the plate15 along longitudinal lines disposed centrally between the edges of theplates.

One of the features of the leg 11 is that it may be readily made from astructural member of the general character of an H-bearn, suchstructural member having two parallel plates or flanges connected by aweb which is spaced inwardly from the edges of the flanges. In theconstruction shown herein, the legs 11 have been made from H-beams bybending the webs of such H-beams transversely of a line, such as theline 20 of Fig. 4, which extends longitudinally along the web 16at'substantially equal distances from the plates 15. The bend made at 21may be readily sharp, or the bend may approach nearer to an arcinscribed around the line on which the crossing planes defined by theplates 15 intersect. The tower leg disclosed herein lends itself well tothe construction of towers of the tri-facial type shown. The web of theH- beam may be readily bent so as to bring the plates 15 into planes41-11 and bb crossing at an angle of 60, shown in Fig. 2, with theportions 17 of the web 16 lying at an angle of The guy wires 5,consisting of cables, are connected to the tower as shown in Fig. 3 bymeans of insulators 25 having connector means comprising plates 26arranged to be extended between adjacent edges of the leg plates 15 andthrough vertical slots 27 in the leg webs 16, wherein they are securedbywelds 28. In the formation of the legs 11, outwardly faced channels 30are formed between up the tower and wherein such lines will besubstantially protected against injury.

I claim:

In a tower of the character described: three legs arranged to definecorners of a trifacial tower, each of said legs consisting of astructural member comprising a pair of parallel elongated platesconnected by a web, said web being bent transversely and holding saidplates at an angle of approximately 60 to each other so that said platesof each leg lie in the planes of the adjacent faces of said tower, saidwebs having openings therein; girt members and diagonal members forreenforcing the tower, said members being arranged in the faces of thetower and having their ends connected directly to the leg platescontiguous thereto; and guy means connected directly to the webs of thetower legs, said guy means comprising connector plates extending betweenthe adjacent edges of the leg plates through said openings of said websand being connected directly thereto.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

